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THE MEN OF THE 
GOSPELS 



BY 

LYNN HAROLD HOUGH 




NEW YORK i EATON & MAINS 
CINCINNATI : JENNINGS & GRAHAM 






Copyright, 191 3, by 
LYNN HAROLD HOUGH 



©CI.A350781 



CO 






TO MY FRIEND 
FRANK GILBERT HAVEN STEVENS 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I. The Man at the Threshold of the 

Gospels 7 

II. The Man of Quicksand Who Became 

a Man of Rock 16 

III. One of the Sons of Thunder 24 

IV. The Heroic Doubter 32 

V. The Traitor 40 

VI. The Man Who Would Not Pay the 

Price 48 

VII. Nicodemus 55 

VIII. Caiaphas 63 

IX. Pilate , 71 

X. Herod Antipas 79 

XI. The Man Who Saw Jesus Die 85 

XII. The Man of the Gospels 92 



THE MAN AT THE THRESH- 
OLD OF THE GOSPELS 

I think he had not heard of the far towns; 

Nor of the deeds of men, nor of king's crowns: 

Before the thought of God took hold of him, 
As he was sitting dreaming in the calm 

Of one first noon, upon the desert's rim, 
Beneath the tall fair shadows of the palm, 
All overcome with some strange inward balm. 

So wrote the Irish poet, Arthur 
O'Shaughnessey, of John the Bap- 
tist, and so writing he touched two 
matters which are very important to 
any man who would understand the 
desert prophet. The first is that 
nature had a great share in making 
him. The sights and sounds of the 
solitary wilderness were for years fa- 
miliar to him. The expansive sky 
above, the pure air to breathe, and 
all the wide outdoor life of the 



THE MEN OF 

desert became a part of the very 
character of John. The physical 
health which nature gives to those 
who live in most intimate terms 
with her was his. The quick eye, 
the direct and incisive habit of mind, 
the freedom from all the graceful de- 
ceptions of civilization, the rugged, 
expressive speech which might have 
been taken fresh from the soil — all 
these were the contribution of that 
life in the desert which was a school 
to John. 

Then he was simply engrossed in 
the thought of God and God's 
righteous will. The quiet of the 
desert gave an opportunity for reli- 
gion to become a possessing thing to 
John, but it did not give him the 
thought which possessed him. Early 
memories of a home where piety was 
dominating and early teachings rich 
with a consciousness of Jehovah's 
8 



THE GOSPELS 

character had helped to open John's 
mind and heart. Then that which 
made him a man of God and a 
prophet came to him. God touched 
the life and the consciousness of 
John in unmistakable fashion. What 
he had heard was now what he had 
experienced. God was no longer 
merely a great idea. He was the 
master of John's life. 

The youth in the desert was a 
man as well as a prophet in the 
making. He fought a man's bat- 
tles. In the strength of God he was 
victorious. How intense were his 
struggles we can begin to under- 
stand as we listen to the moral pas- 
sion of his preaching. It is the 
speech of a man who has looked 
into the burning, hungry eyes of the 
beast and has felt its hot breath 
upon his face. 

During his years in the wilderness 
9 



THE MEN OF 

John brooded much upon the Old 
Testament, the life of Israel, and the 
future God held in store. There 
were two ways to view Israel's life. 
One might see it as a political pa- 
triot. Then he dreamed of world 
empire. One might see it as a moral 
patriot. Then he dreamed of the 
triumph of righteousness. The He- 
brew prophets had been dominated 
by the moral view of their nation's 
life. John made their outlook his 
own. It was this which saved him 
from the selfish superficiality of view- 
ing the Messiah as another Alexan- 
der heading triumphant armies for 
secular victories. 

When John's voice rang out on the 
banks of the Jordan it was the break- 
ing into speech of a moral and 
spiritual energy which compelled at- 
tention. The rude and uncouth 
figure fresh from the desert had a 
10 



THE GOSPELS 

strange imperial mien which awed 
and amazed men. He was mas- 
tered by the high consciousness that 
he spoke for God, and men felt that 
once again a prophet had risen 
among them. 

His words opened great doors of 
hope: the Messiah was about to 
come; but they cut like sharp blades: 
the Messiah would come as a judge 
and all evil would be overthrown. 
It would be a day of reckoning and 
a day of doom. Sinners in Israel 
would have as much to fear as sin- 
ners out of Israel. To listen to 
John's preaching was like bending to 
receive a scourging, but so mighty 
was the power of his words that 
multitudes came to hear in spite of 
the dread of the lash. To-day was 
the day of repentance. There was 
time to turn from wickedness. There 
was time to cast off evil ways. John 
ii 



THE MEN OP 

used a great symbol to express re- 
pentance and the utter change of 
life. He baptized penitents in the 
river, whose washing waters typified 
cleansed lives. Men eagerly sought 
his baptism. They turned from their 
sins. A mighty revival swept over 
the land. John was like an incar- 
nate conscience, and Israel heeded 
his words. There was a shrewd 
practical insight in his dealing with 
men. He required faithfulness to 
the tasks their place in life brought 
to them. He interpreted righteous- 
ness in terms of human faithfulness. 
He did not command them to ob- 
serve a new ritual. He commanded 
them to live a new life. 

So it came to pass that Jesus en- 
tered upon his mission in a country 
morally awake. There was a new 
spirit over all the land because John 
had spoken. Jesus had an audience 

12 



THE GOSPELS 

to which he could utter words they 
could not have understood had John 
never preached. Men looked at him 
out of conscience-haunted eyes be- 
cause John had roused in them a 
new sense of the demands of right- 
eousness. 

But Jesus brought more than an 
emphasis on John's message. He 
brought a satisfaction of all the 
need John's ministry had brought 
to light. Sin was a dreadful mon- 
ster the consciousness of whose pres- 
ence John's ministry had roused. 
But John was unable to slay the 
monster. Some sudden sense of a 
dealing with sin more fundamental 
than any of which his ministry had 
been able to tell flashed through the 
mind of John when he said of Jesus, 
"Behold, the Lamb of God, that 
taketh away the sin of the world!" 

John died a martyr. Jesus died a 
13 



THE MEN OF 

sinbearer. John was preparing the 
way for the gospel. Jesus achieved 
the gospel. John was the greatest 
man of the old age, peering over into 
the new. Jesus was the creator of 
the new age who gathered up into 
his ministry all the deep, true mean- 
ing of the old. 

With all his dominant desert man- 
hood John was content to recognize 
his Master. The last expression of 
his greatness was his submission to 
Jesus. He began by calling himself 
a voice. He was always eager to 
direct attention away from himself. 
He ended by calling himself a friend 
of the Bridegroom. In his self- 
surrender there was a profound per- 
sonal satisfaction. It was sufficient 
to be a friend of Jesus. 

The moral might of John's mes- 
sage always finds a place where 
there is true preaching. At the 



THE GOSPELS 

threshold of every age's experience 
of the gospel there is needed a 
stern-faced prophet who becomes a 
conscience to his time. 



15 



THE MEN OF 



II 

THE MAN OF QUICKSAND 

WHO BECAME A MAN 

OF ROCK 

You cannot always admire Peter, 
but you find it very hard not to 
like him. He is so real and frank, 
so impulsive and eager, so sponta- 
neous and human that he makes a 
place for himself even in those nar- 
ratives dominated by the great per- 
sonality of the Man of Galilee. 

It was like Jesus to meet this man 
of rash daring and quick reaction, 
this fisherman whose strength was in 
his emotions, and whose weakness 
was in his will — it was like Jesus to 
meet this man and to give him the 
name Peter, because he was to be- 
come a man of rocklike strength. 
Jesus always thought more about 
16 



THE GOSPELS 

what men might become than what 
they were. He always measured 
men by their capacity rather than 
by their history. 

Peter had felt the stern summons 
of the preaching of John the Bap- 
tist. His conscience had been held 
fast by those words of moral power. 
He could no more be a man en- 
grossed by the pursuits of a catcher 
and seller of fish after listening to 
John. So he was in some sense pre- 
pared for the call of Jesus. The 
strange light of a moral awakening 
was in his eye when Jesus first 
spoke to him. But Peter was more 
attracted by Jesus than he had ever 
been by John. The last of the 
prophets had spoken to his con- 
science. Jesus spoke to his whole 
life. The human glow and richness 
of the life of the Man of Galilee met 
a need which John the Baptist had 

17 



THE MEN OF 

never comprehended. Looking at 
Jesus, Peter somehow felt that a 
man might have a moral fire blazing 
in his heart and yet be a glad and 
winsome comrade of men. He was 
glad to follow Jesus. So he heeded 
the call. 

It was not simply true that Peter 
was especially attracted by Jesus, it 
was also true that the Master felt a 
particularly warm affection for Peter. 
That blundering, dashing, eager dis- 
ciple, with flashes of almost uncanny 
intuition, and quick descents into 
groveling incapacity to understand, 
drew heavily upon the sympathy and 
love of Jesus. His robust, whole- 
some, whole-hearted devotion to his 
Master was one of the bright things 
about the human career of Christ. 
He was made not only one of the 
twelve, but one of the three nearest 
to Jesus. He was with the Master 
18 



THE GOSPELS 

on the Mount of Transfiguration and 
in Gethsemane. He easily took a 
place of leadership among the twelve. 

But still he was a man of the 
quicksands. On the Mount of Trans- 
figuration he so enjoyed spiritual 
ecstasy that he wanted to stay 
there forever. He forgot all about 
the need of those in the valley. In 
Gethsemane he slept while his Mas- 
ter was in an agony of untold suffer- 
ing. He had the enthusiasm which 
started to walk on the water, and 
which cut off the ear of an enemy of 
Jesus, but after a violent beginning 
a sudden reaction was likely to leave 
him weak and helpless. 

All the while, however, he was 
really growing. The touch of the 
life of Jesus upon his own was by 
no means in vain. When many 
turned from Jesus and the Master 
sadly asked the twelve if they, too, 

19 



THE MEN OF 

would forsake him, it was Peter who 
replied, "To whom shall we go? 
thou hast the words of eternal life." 
When, after speaking his great words 
and doing his great deeds in the 
presence of the disciples, Jesus asked, 
"Whom say ye that I am?" it was 
Peter who rose to the demand of 
that high question and replied, 
"Thou art the Christ, the Son of 
the living God." There he stood, 
eyes aflame, heart warm with devo- 
tion, mind lifted to some new height 
of comprehension, confessing the 
mastery and the Lordship of Jesus. 
All that the creeds have affirmed of 
Jesus was implicit in his words. As 
the Master looked at him, a living 
man making a vital confession of 
his Lordship, a confession growing 
out of Peter's own experience, he 
felt that here indeed was an example 
of what was to be the basis of all his 

20 



THE GOSPELS 

power. Upon this rock of the con- 
fession growing out of a personal 
experience of the Lordship of Christ 
was the church to be founded. 

But at last, in a most critical hour, 
it was the man of quicksand, and not 
the man of rock, who stood forth 
before the world. Peter denied his 
Master. He denied him vehemently 
and with cursing. Misconception, 
bewilderment, the reaction to which 
his temperament was so liable, cow- 
ardice in the presence of the trium- 
phant opinion of the world against 
Jesus — all these broke upon his life 
and left it a stranded wreck. 

What the experience cost Peter in 
suffering repentance we may not 
fathom. That it cost Jesus an added 
pang in the hour of his own great 
pain we may be very sure. But the 
prophecy of Jesus was not to fail. 
The man of quicksand was yet to 

21 



THE MEN OF 

become a man of rock. After the 
resurrection Jesus signalized his con- 
fidence in his impulsive disciple by- 
giving him a great work to do* 
There was no way to lead him to- 
ward strength like making him re- 
sponsible for others. Then came 
Pentecost with its baptism of mighty 
vitality. Peter now found the se- 
cret of continuous bravery. His 
words were unflinching, his suffer- 
ing glad and heroic, his leadership 
steady. The Peter of the book of 
Acts has become a man of rock. 

It was to Peter that there was 
given the vision of the descending 
sheet. To this very human disciple 
came the revelation that God cared 
for human beings everywhere. He 
was the first of the twelve to be 
shaken out of the provincialism 
which would have made of Chris- 
tianity a Jewish sect. 
22 



THE GOSPELS 

Advancing years found Peter a 
great apostle to dispersed Jews. Old 
faults appeared sometimes; once 
Paul found it necessary to rebuke 
him; but his great battle was fought, 
his great victory was won. He had 
become a man of unflinching Chris- 
tian loyalty and of genuine leader- 
ship. He was ready to give life 
itself, at last, a glad offering to his 
Saviour and Lord. 



23 



THE MEN OF 



III 

ONE OF THE SONS OF 
THUNDER 

Two men of the Gospels are re- 
ferred to as Sons of Thunder. They 
are James and John. Jesus, we are 
told, surnamed them "Boanerges, 
which is Sons of Thunder." There 
is some difficulty about this term 
1 'Boanerges" and getting it to have 
the meaning which Mark offers. 
The explanation of Mark, however, 
is rich in suggestiveness, and it offers 
quite the best point of departure for 
the study of the man who is the 
subject of this chapter — the apostle 
John. 

We ordinarily think of John as an 

incarnation of gentleness; a man 

whose tender and winsome ways 

especially endeared him to Jesus; 

24 



THE GOSPELS 

the mystic of the twelve whose 
brooding contemplations enrich the 
fourth Gospel, and whose splendid 
visions shine forth in the Apoca- 
lypse. There is much truth in this 
picture of a deep-eyed man with an 
inner life full of the wonder of a 
brooding sense of God; but this is 
what John became. This is not 
John as he is first introduced to us, 
nor is it John in the making. 

An intense, eager young fisherman, 
of that decisive energy of temper- 
ament which may harden into cold 
rigidity or may soften into mellow 
strength, John heard the preaching 
of the last of the prophets with an 
instant and deep responsiveness. He 
became a disciple of the flaming 
preacher of righteousness, and his 
own character was given an addi- 
tional sharpness and vehement faith- 
fulness by the days spent in the 
25 



THE MEN OF 

company of the man whose words 
burst forth like sudden thunder. 

Then Jesus met John. At once 
the life of the impetuous, eager 
young man appeared as a fertile field 
for his sowing. He was invited to 
become a companion of Jesus, and 
the passing days found him disciple, 
apostle, and intimate friend. The 
intense capacity of John for devo- 
tion, and his fiery loyalty to Jesus, 
appear now and then in the Gospels. 
He was one of those who would have 
called down fire on the Samaritan 
village which would not receive 
Jesus — a Son of Thunder and light- 
ning, indeed! He was ready to 
silence a man who performed mir- 
acles in the name of Jesus, but was 
not one of the circle especially called 
by the Master. Incisive, masterful 
judgments were ready to leap to his 
lips. Then it seems clear that 
26 



THE GOSPELS 

John was very ambitious. With his 
brother James and their mother 
Salome, he planned a dramatic re- 
quest that the two brothers should 
have the most princely places in the 
kingdom of Jesus. An imperial spirit 
was ready to take possession of these 
fishermen. Their dreams were col- 
ored with purple. This vivid wrath 
and climbing ambition needed much 
discipline ere the mellow and gra- 
cious personality which is felt in the 
writings of John had really come into 
being. 

Jesus dealt in stern kindness and 
fearless love with the disciple whose 
temperament had such hot and 
mounting energy. The saving facts 
about John were two: First, there 
was a deep and noble earnestness in 
his character. Second, he was en- 
tirely devoted to Jesus. He was one 
of those chosen to share in the great 
27 



THE MEN OF 

experiences of the Master's life. On 
the Mount of Transfiguration he did 
not break into speech, as did Peter, 
but he was present and he had feel- 
ings too deep for words. He was 
near to Jesus in Gethsemane and he 
shared in the strange, cruel panic of 
that dreadful night. 

Then love conquered fear. He fol- 
lowed his Master. His relations with 
those in authority secured his ad- 
mission among those who were en- 
acting the last tragic scenes in the 
life of Jesus. When the hour on 
Calvary came he was standing near 
the cross, and it was to him that 
Jesus committed his mother — a last 
charge, full of trust and love. 

John's silence in the Gospels has 
been commented upon. It is really 
remarkable how little he speaks, as 
far as the records go. But he is 
seeing the great works of Jesus; he 
28 



THE GOSPELS 

is hearing his matchless speech; and 
in long hours of meditation the 
meaning of it all is to become clear 
to him. The hot, impetuous nature 
softens with the passing years and 
the touch of the divine power upon 
the life of John. The inner meaning 
of religion is being more and more 
fully revealed to him. 

After Pentecost, John comes to be 
one of the leaders of the church. He 
is associated with Peter in the guid- 
ing of the destinies of the little com- 
pany which is so soon to fill the 
world with its evangel and the evi- 
dences of its power. There is a con- 
trast between Peter and John. In 
Peter religion tends to express itself 
in practical activity ; in John it tends 
to take fuller possession of the inner 
life. Peter's eyes are turned with- 
out; John's eyes are turned within. 
If in Peter you have the tempera- 
29 



THE MEN OF 

ment which would belong to a pri- 
mate of a visible church, in John, 
after he has matured, you have a 
temperament which would fit some 
mystic primate of men's hearts. 

Tradition, which we have no ade- 
quate reason to doubt, tells us that 
John lived to a great age and that 
Ephesus was the scene of his final 
ministry. A finely tempered spirit- 
uality breathes through his writings, 
and it must first have expressed it- 
self in his speech. The fires of his 
early manhood had not burned out; 
they had become the steady glow of 
a life always full of warmth, but 
saved from conflagration. He was 
capable always of intense feeling and 
of hot outbursts of noble wrath, but 
the surface of his life was marked 
by the gentle stillness of one who 
has found the secret of perennial 
repose. 

30 



THE GOSPELS 

He left behind him the odor of a 
beautiful and tender sanctity, and 
over the life of the church has been 
diffused a certain noble mysticism 
which has come from him. When 
you think about Peter your em- 
phasis is likely to be on Christian 
action; when you think about Paul 
your emphasis is likely to be on 
Christian thought; when you medi- 
tate about John Christian feeling, 
pure and lofty and serene, begins to 
pour into your heart. 



31 



THE MEN OF 

IV 
THE HEROIC DOUBTER 

This is not an easy world for a 
man without wings. Thomas, the 
loyal, doubting disciple of Jesus, did 
not find life very bright or glad. 
No wings of mounting faith had been 
given to him as a part of his equip- 
ment; he was of a slow, hesitating 
habit of mind. He distrusted vivid 
and heated speech. He did not un- 
derstand men of mystical temper. 
He was a prosaic, earnest man, es- 
sentially commonplace in thought 
and feeling. 

Peter and Thomas present a most 
interesting contrast. Peter had faith 
but lacked steadiness; Thomas had 
steadiness but lacked faith. Peter 
rose to heights and also sank to 
depths; Thomas rose to no such 
32 



THE GOSPELS 

heights and sank to no such depths. 
Peter had great flashes of intuition, 
but he did not always keep his hold 
on the truths which came to him 
in these moments of inspiration. 
Thomas had no such moments of 
sudden intuitive insight, but when 
once he grasped a truth his hold on 
it was sure and tenacious. 

One wonders a little at finding 
Thomas among the twelve. It seems 
strange at first that Jesus desired to 
have such a man as a member of his 
immediate circle. It seems strange 
that Thomas, being just the sort of 
man he was, cared to be numbered 
among the twelve. The enterprise of 
Jesus was one which required glow- 
ing faith, a quick sense of the unseen, 
and an agile mind ready to see and 
appropriate new ideas. These are 
just the characteristics which 
Thomas did not possess. The mis- 

33 



THE MEN OF 

sion of Jesus, however, was not to 
men of a certain temperament and 
intellectual type. It had to do with 
humanity. Each fundamental type 
was to be reached and mastered. 
Thomas was needed to complete the 
apostolic circle. Then Thomas was 
infinitely attracted by Jesus, though 
his mind did not completely follow 
his heart. He felt the compulsion 
of the personality of Jesus, while his 
judgment followed his devotion with 
lagging steps. There was an inner 
battle in Thomas. His heart and 
his head did not agree. It was 
through his heart that Jesus spoke 
to this man of a sluggish mind, and 
Thomas followed his heart. He had 
no end of mental misgivings, but his 
loyalty was unswerving to the end. 
Discipleship was a more or less 
thorny path for Thomas. Jesus kept 
saying things he did not understand, 

34 



THE GOSPELS 

and what he did understand did not 
always commend itself to him. 
When a flash of mental sympathy 
went through the circle of the disci- 
ples Thomas often stood with per- 
plexed and troubled brow. He did 
not share in the moment of illumi- 
nation. But all the while he grew 
more deeply attached in a personal 
way to his Master. He did not 
understand him, but he did love 
him with a great devotion. 

The time came when Judaea was 
a hostile country to Jesus. There 
were hatred and plotting, and to 
go there again meant a grave risk 
of life, but Lazarus died, and Jesus 
announced to his disciples that he 
would go back into what had be- 
come for him the enemy's country. 
The disciples looked at each other 
furtively. It was a wild and useless 
risk their Master was taking. If he 

35 



THE MEN OF 

insisted on going would they go with 
him and risk their lives too? Or 
would they refuse to accompany him 
on so foolhardy a journey? It was 
Thomas who spoke, and for the 
time became the leader of the twelve. 
He had no light to throw on the 
subject. The future was completely 
black to him. He had no faith, but 
he had heroic loyalty. If they went 
back he felt that they would all be 
killed. But they had given their 
allegiance to Jesus. It was no time 
to fail him now. "Let us go," he 
said, "and die with him." The des- 
perate loyalty of Thomas roused the 
other disciples and they all followed 
the Master back to Judaea. Proba- 
bly no one was more surprised than 
Thomas when no tragic results fol- 
lowed immediately. 

When the last terrible tragedy 
came Thomas sank into misanthropy 
36 



THE GOSPELS 

and despair. It was not so much a 
reaction with him as with the others. 
He had had his deep misgivings, and 
lately they had grown stronger. 
Now his sober judgment was vindi- 
cated. His Master had failed. He 
had been killed. Thomas would 
never see him again. It was small 
comfort, however, that Thomas had 
expected some tragic end to the 
ministry of his Master. He had 
loved Jesus, and now that face of 
glowing, eager friendliness and lofty 
love would never be seen again. 
His heart bled at the thought. He 
had nothing to look forward to. 
He had only wonderful memories. 
He sat nursing them in silent gloom. 
He had not heart enough to meet 
with the disciples as in mutual fel- 
lowship they tried to comfort one 
another. Thus he missed the first 
appearance of Jesus to the company 

37 



THE MEN OF 

of the disciples. When he heard of 
it he refused to believe that it was 
true. He would not allow his 
wounded heart to be comforted by- 
delusive hopes. He would not be- 
lieve unless he could touch the very 
marks of Calvary on the body of 
Jesus. He was a materialist by na- 
ture. The last word of proof to him 
was the testimony of touch. 

Now, however, Thomas did meet 
with the disciples. Again Jesus ap- 
peared while his skeptical disciple 
gazed with wide and wonder-filled 
eyes in which love and doubt strug- 
gled for the mastery. He was per- 
fectly honest and earnest and sincere. 
His mind simply refused to take the 
great truth in. Then Jesus stooped 
to the need of Thomas. He offered 
to submit to the very test Thomas 
had required. He commanded him 
to reach forth his hand and touch 
38 



THE GOSPELS 

the marks of the hour on the 
cross. 

Now, for once, Thomas had his 
flash of intuition. Now, at last, he 
had his moment on the Mount of 
Transfiguration. He did not reach 
forth his hand. He opened his 
mind. He took the great truth in 
and welcomed it and accepted it. 
Mind and heart were in accord at 
last. With a great joyous faith 
which the years were to be unable 
to change, he cried out, "My Lord 
and my God." 



39 



THE MEN OF 

V 

THE TRAITOR 

Judas is the strangest figure in 
the gallery of the Gospels. He is a 
study in the failure of environment. 
The surroundings of Judas were a 
constant moral and spiritual sum- 
mons. Against this background his 
treachery stands out in unrelieved 
blackness. 

Wonderful sights Judas saw. He 
was present again and again when 
Jesus performed miracles. He saw 
in the closest and most intimate way 
that flashing forth of divine power 
which caused all Israel to wonder. 
He saw sickness vanish at the word 
of Jesus, and looked upon the blind 
as with glad, wondering eyes they 
beheld the world where they had 
lived unseeing. He saw nature 
40 



THE GOSPELS 

obedient to the command of Jesus, 
and beheld the dead come forth to 
life at the Master's bidding. If the 
direct and complete exhibition of 
divine power could move a man, 
surely Judas should have been com- 
pletely convinced and mastered by 
Jesus. But more than this did 
Judas see. In the constant fellow- 
ship of the twelve with Jesus he had 
full opportunity to observe the Mas- 
ter's life. The radiant unselfishness 
of that great life unfolded before 
him day by day. The stainless 
purity of it was seen by him as only 
one of the chosen companions of 
Jesus could see it. The miracle of a 
perfect and winsome manhood was 
the greatest miracle which Judas 
beheld. This he looked upon con- 
stantly, month after month, until 
months grew into years. 

Wonderful words did Judas hear. 
41 



THE MEN OP 

Many a man found a single dis- 
course of Jesus unforgettable, and 
his whole outlook on life changed by 
it. Judas heard discourse after dis- 
course. He heard Jesus speak to the 
great multitudes, 'he heard the quiet 
conversations of Jesus with the dis- 
ciples as they walked along the road, 
or sat together under the silent, 
shining stars. Judas heard the para- 
bles with their winsome, human 
sympathy and their moral penetra- 
tion. He heard those brief, telling 
sentences of Jesus which condensed 
a volume of spiritual truth into a 
pregnant phrase. The view of life 
which was the great mental gift of 
Jesus to men was given out in the 
presence of Judas. He had the full- 
est and completest opportunity to 
hear and to understand it all. Then 
Judas had the added summons which 
came from the fact that Jesus se- 
42 



THE GOSPELS 

lected him to be one of his own 
disciples. The Master saw some- 
thing in Judas which made him de- 
sirable as one of the leaders of the 
early church. He invited him to 
leave the great company of casual 
hearers and become his own ac- 
credited messenger. He took him in 
training for a great future work. 
An opportunity unexcelled was his. 

In the circle of the disciples the 
practical gifts of Judas were recog- 
nized and he was made the treasurer 
of the little company. He seems to 
have belonged to the mental type of 
the man of affairs, and his qualities 
were needed in the early Christian 
Church. 

If recognition, and honor, and op- 
portunity could make a good man, 
what a noble man Judas should 
have been! His surroundings gave 
him every opportunity and motive 

43 



THE MEN OF 

for goodness. Yet it was Judas, 
who had seen and heard and shared 
the great ministry of the Son of 
man, who became a traitor and be- 
trayed his Lord. 

At the beginning there were two 
of Judas, as there are two of every 
man. There was the Judas who was 
drawn by the nobility of the life of 
Jesus and might have become a 
true disciple. There was the Judas 
who desired wealth and external 
prosperity above all things. Strange- 
ly enough, both aspects of Judas 
at first responded to Jesus. His 
best self felt the moral and spiritual 
power of the Master. He shared the 
inadequate Messianic notions of his 
time, and so the Judas who was 
looking for wealth and external 
power expected Jesus to provide 
them too. 

As time went on he learned his 

44 



THE GOSPELS 

mistake. Perhaps he was one of the 
first of the disciples to see that the 
program of Jesus was not the bril- 
liant campaign of a victorious con- 
queror. In his Master Judas could 
find moral and spiritual Lordship, 
but he was to be no princely dis- 
penser of honors and gold. With 
this discovery a battle began in 
Judas. Would he give up his desire 
for wealth and power and accept 
the ideal of life Jesus voiced in such 
matchless words? Or would he re- 
pudiate the unworldly Galilaean and 
seek in some new vocation to find 
opulence and position? It was a 
hard battle and it was complicated 
by a strange feeling in the breast of 
Judas. Perhaps in spite of the low- 
liness of Jesus he might yet come 
to the throne. The lower desires of 
Judas might be gratified by remain- 
ing one of the twelve. The result of 

45 



THE MEN OF 

all the struggle was that Judas came 
to an inner repudiation of Jesus and 
his ideals, and yet, held by material 
hopes, persisted in, though the words 
of Jesus did not justify them, he re- 
mained one of the twelve. After 
this inner repudiation his moral de- 
terioration was rapid. He began to 
pilfer the funds intrusted to him. 
He began to hate Jesus. The perfect 
life lived before him was a constant 
rebuke, and it raised a hard, bitter 
antagonism. The eyes of Jesus fell 
on him sometimes in a sad, reproach- 
ful way. This angered him the 
more. At last he became convinced 
that the material hopes which had 
kept him in the circle of Jesus would 
never be fulfilled. He resolved to 
break away from his connections with 
the disciples and gratify his hatred 
of Jesus in one deed. He sold his 
Master to his foes. It was all done 

4 6 



THE GOSPELS 

with hard and cruel strength of pur- 
pose. The full cup of hatred was 
quaffed when he kissed his Master in 
betraying him. 

Then a strange thing happened. 
The rigid will of Judas lost all its 
strength. A terrible gloom settled 
down upon hirn. It was not a 
moral repentance, but a heavy reali- 
zation of the meaning of what he had 
done. He was alone in a blackened 
world. He could not stand the 
weight of it, and in despair he took 
his own life. The church can never 
forget the summons to sober ear- 
nestness and humility which comes 
from the fact that one of the dis- 
ciples of Jesus was a traitor and a 
suicide. 



47 



THE MEN OF 



VI 

THE MAN WHO WOULD NOT 
PAY THE PRICE 

Sometimes a single scene gives 
you an adequate picture of a man's 
character. Sometimes one conver- 
sation is completely revealing as to 
a man's great temptation and his 
deepest struggle. The Gospels con- 
tain such pictures and such conver- 
sations. We read a few sentences 
and pause full of awe and wonder. 
We have stood alone with a man's 
soul. 

The story of the rich young ruler 
(Matthew 19. 16-22; Mark 10. 17- 
22\ Luke 18. 18-23) is of this char- 
acter. With Oriental ceremony and 
much show of gracious courtesy, this 
high-bred, eager young patrician of 
the Jews knelt before Jesus. "Good 

48 



THE GOSPELS 

Master," he cried, "what shall I do 
to inherit eternal life?" There was 
a conventional courtesy about his 
speech, a substitution of the gra- 
ciousness of good breeding for the 
graciousness of sincerity, which 
grated on the feelings of Jesus. He 
could never be pleased by a merely 
conventional compliment. "Why 
callest thou me good?" he replied. 
"'Good' is a great word," he said in 
effect. "It is only God who can be 
called completely good. Such a 
high and noble word should not be 
used carelessly and superficially." 

This verbal turn at the beginning 
of the conversation tells us some 
important things about the young 
man. However eager and honest his 
intention, he did not come pressed 
by the burden of any great moral 
struggle. He was a wholesome, 
hearty young man, impressed by the 

49 



THE MEN OF 

personality of Jesus, and vaguely de- 
siring some deeper and fuller life than 
he had known. What he needed was 
not to be delivered from a bitter 
struggle. If he was to have a life of 
genuine depth he needed to have a 
great struggle brought on. 

His question had been about eter- 
nal life. Replying in terms which he 
could easily understand, Jesus re- 
ferred him to the commandments. 

The young man, desiring concrete 
teaching, pressed for a more definite 
answer. Jesus repeated from the 
Decalogue words emphasizing our 
duties toward our fellow men. He 
was beginning to come to closer 
quarters with the richly clad young 
ruler as he emphasized his human 
obligations. The reply did not daunt 
the young man, however. He had 
been trained in a home of piety. He 
had received its teachings with re- 
50 



THE GOSPELS 

spect and had obeyed them. "All 
these things," he replied, "I have 
observed from my youth up." But 
even as he spoke the dim sense of 
deeper need which had brought him 
to Jesus throbbed more decisively in 
his heart. Something in the bear- 
ing of Jesus too seemed to suggest 
depths of moral and spiritual de- 
mand he had not fathomed. With a 
noble seriousness which spoke with a 
deeper reality than had marked any- 
thing he had yet said, he asked, 
"What lack I yet?" 

During the conversation Jesus had 
been studying this well-made, vig- 
orous, wholesome young man with 
the glow of health upon his face, 
and the marks of refinement in his 
every word and gesture. He was a 
great contrast to the lusty peasant 
disciples Jesus had gathered around 
him, but this man represented a large 

5i 



THE MEN OF 

class in the world Jesus had come to 
save, and if he would make the great 
surrender he had tremendous moral 
and spiritual possibilities. Locked 
up in his life were potencies which if 
made actual would be of large service 
in the kingdom of God. He was 
scarcely awake to life's deepest 
meaning as yet, but if he could be 
roused he would become a strong 
man of God. 

Looking thus upon him in his 
fresh, unspoiled manhood, and think- 
ing of all that he might become, 
Jesus felt his heart warming with 
love for this young man. He wanted 
him for his own. He wanted him for 
his kingdom. With kindling, yearn- 
ing eyes of affection he looked 
upon him. Then he decided to offer 
this man the greatest gift which even 
Jesus could give. He would invite 
him to become one of his disciples. 
52 



THE GOSPELS 

It would mean great sacrifice; he 
must surrender wealth and position; 
but it would be tremendously worth 
the cost. Losing his life, he would 
find it. The great surrender would 
be the gateway to a greater heritage ; 
so Jesus spoke the great demand and 
the great invitation: "Sell what thou 
hast and give to the poor/' "Come, 
follow me." 

The words came with strange un- 
expectedness to the young ruler. In 
a flash they revealed his great weak- 
ness and his supreme opportunity. 
The love of luxury and possessions 
had fastened itself upon his life 
more deeply than he knew. He 
seemed held tight in his own devotion 
to wealth. But something else he felt 
too: the summons of a life greater 
than any of which he had ever 
dreamed, a life of sacrifice, and 
achievement, and companionship 

53 



THE MEN OF 

with Jesus. He seemed to feel a 
purer air blowing on his face. The 
eyes of Jesus were bent upon him, 
and his heart thrilled with the ten- 
der winsomeness of that great word 
"Come." 

So the higher and the lower fought 
in the heart of this young man in his 
life's supreme moment. Then the 
light faded from his eye; the heroic 
vision passed; the love of gold and 
lands clutched tightly, and he sur- 
rendered. With troubled face he 
turned away. The wonderful gate 
which had been opened before him 
closed. 

A grim sense of what he was losing 
came heavily upon him. Deeper 
gloom settled upon his heart. Still 
he continued to walk away. Life's 
moment of strategy had come and 
gone, and he had failed. 



54 



THE GOSPELS 

VII 

NICODEMUS 

We have already seen that the 
men of the Gospels represent varied 
human types. In Nicodemus a new 
variety emerges. This judicial and 
formal Pharisee, with a hungry heart 
underneath his dignified exterior, has 
many things to teach us. A super- 
ficial observer would have been sure 
to misjudge Nicodemus. He would 
have seen the somewhat cold and 
mechanical bearing of this member of 
the Sanhedrin and would have heard 
the conventional tones of his speech. 
Then he would have pronounced 
judgment. This is a mere husk of a 
man. There is no fountain of vitality 
playing within. He is satisfied with 
the surface of life, provided it be 
arranged with propriety and dignity. 

55 



THE MEN OF 

When Nicodemus seeks to inter- 
view Jesus by night there is much 
in his approach to the Great Teacher 
which seems to confirm this judg- 
ment. He makes quite a show of a 
judicial mind dealing with a new 
and difficult phenomenon. He utters 
a perfectly conventional judgment in 
a perfectly conventional way. He 
shows no feeling for the deeper qual- 
ity of the ministry of Jesus. There 
is no spark of fire in his eye to indi- 
cate that his soul has been touched. 
He is setting the processes of rab- 
binical reasoning to work with re- 
spect to the ministry of Jesus, and 
the result he declares in a formal 
and stilted fashion is a conviction 
that Jesus is a teacher sent from 
God. 

Many a man would have been 
tempted to pay little attention to 
Nicodemus. What was there in this 

56 



THE GOSPELS 

fossilized life to respond to the vital 
ministry of Jesus, all surging with 
vigor and red blood? Jesus did not 
regard the matter in this way. He 
saw beneath the surface of formal 
dignity, and there he found a rest- 
less soul. Under the shell there was 
a kernel, and in characteristic fashion 
Jesus sought that at once. Looking 
Nicodemus in the eye, he declared 
that if a man would see the kingdom 
of God he must be born anew. Jesus 
simply ignored the rabbinical words 
of this ruler of the Jews and brought 
him face to face with one of the 
great realities of life. Not arguing 
about miracles, but seeking an inner 
vitality which would make life over 
again, was the part of the true and 
earnest man. The reply of Nico- 
demus shows how much shell there 
was to his life, and might well have 
discouraged anybody but Jesus about 
57 



THE MEN OF 

the kernel. With the crassest literal- 
ness of speech he asked how it could 
at all be possible for a man to be 
physically reborn. Jesus reminded 
him of the ministry of John the 
Baptist, of his rite of washing, which 
had represented repentance, and his 
prophecy of the greater baptism of 
the Spirit. Unless a man be born of 
water and the Spirit, declared the 
Great Teacher, God's kingdom is 
closed to him. Repentance and re- 
newal by vital forces coming from 
God himself are the great matters of 
life. The wheels of the mind of 
Nicodemus, creaking with their rab- 
binical thoughts, refused to respond 
to these teachings of the Master. 
He was completely bewildered. 
"How can these things be?" he 
asked, dully. Jesus expressed aston- 
ishment that a religious leader of his 
people should know so little of such 

58 



THE GOSPELS 

a fundamental matter as the neces- 
sity of a new and morally creative 
life to renew a man's nature after 
the fashion of the will of God. 

Then the Master chose a unique 
method of dealing with Nicodemus. 
He simply bombarded him with great 
truths. He gave matchless expres- 
sion to God's sacrificial love. He 
talked of salvation and his own rela- 
tion to it. He talked of that being 
lifted up which was to be his great 
work in the world. He talked of 
that love of dark things and dark 
ways which would turn men's hearts 
from him. Jesus seems to have felt 
that Nicodemus belonged to the type 
of man you must shock into con- 
sciousness of new truth. He fairly 
dazzled him with the light he let 
fall upon his mind. 

Then Nicodemus went away. 
That was all he could do. His 
59 



THE MEN OF 

pitiable superficial life lay in frag- 
ments all about him. Something 
new and great seemed to be offered. 
He must think it out, and struggle 
through its meaning. Nicodemus 
came to Jesus for immediate know- 
ledge. Jesus gave him something 
better. He gave him a battle. He 
sent him forth to the fight of his 
life. The superficial Pharisee and 
the man of eager, hungry life must 
do battle, and one of them must be 
destroyed. 

We next hear of Nicodemus eight- 
een months later. The Sanhedrin, 
disappointed at failing to get pos- 
session of Jesus, is venting its wrath 
in angry words. Nicodemus makes 
a protest. Should they condemn a 
man who has not had a personal 
hearing? he asks. It is significant 
that this man of the temperament 
which always inclines to the view of 
60 



THE GOSPELS 

the majority should have made this 
protest. The real man is gaining 
some headway in fighting the Phar- 
isee. 

We have only one more glimpse 
of Nicodemus. The account of the 
trial of Jesus contains no reference 
to this ruler of the Jews. Did he re- 
main away in fear? Was it impos- 
sible for him to be present and 
protest? We do not know. Now 
Jesus has been crucified and Joseph 
of Arimathaea is about to prepare 
the body for burial. Nicodemus 
appears with a great offering of 
myrrh and aloes — about a hundred 
pounds. It is the tribute of his 
heart to the One who looked be- 
neath the surface of him and found 
the man. 

The man who went as far as 
Nicodemus may well have gone 
farther. It is good to believe that 
61 



THE MEN OF 

when the battle was at last fought 
out, the man had conquered the 
Pharisee and Nicodemus had be- 
come a Christian. What is certain 
is that Jesus saw through an amount 
of conventionality which would have 
repulsed most men of passionate sin- 
cerity and found the real Nicodemus 
in his restless heart. Jesus won the 
affection of this ruler of the Jews and 
we hope that at last he won his com- 
plete allegiance. 



62 



THE GOSPELS 

VIII 
CAIAPHAS 

We have only a few glimpses of 
Caiaphas in the Gospels. He ap- 
pears and speaks a few words and 
then passes from view. But his 
words are always very influential, 
and the glimpses we have of Caiaphas 
allow us to look right into his life and 
see what manner of man he was. 

This high priest was a Sadducee, a 
selfish worldling, with astute insight 
into the processes of men's minds. 
He was a leader by right of shrewd- 
ness and personal power, and not by 
right of moral earnestness or spiritual 
loftiness of character. He was a 
secular ecclesiastic to whom the 
deeper meanings of life were a closed 
book. 

Of course such a man would not be 

63 



THE MEN OF 

attracted by Jesus. His first definite 
knowledge of the prophet of Galilee 
made him sure that this seer of moral 
and spiritual passion lived in a dif- 
ferent world from his own. At first 
he may have been inclined to regard 
Jesus as a harmless visionary. There 
may even have been a time when he 
debated whether it would be pos- 
sible to use Jesus for the furthering 
of his own selfish ends. The time 
came, however, when this astute offi- 
cial of the Jewish Church saw that 
Jesus was a dangerous antagonist. 
He was not merely a poet singing of 
an ideal day. He was a powerful 
personality, winning men's allegiance 
and leading them to the place where 
the standards he set forth became 
dominant in their lives. The men 
who believed in Jesus must inevita- 
bly become the critics of men like 
Caiaphas. Loyalty to the Galilaean 

6 4 



THE GOSPELS 

prophet would eventuate in hostility 
to the Sadducean priesthood. Caia- 
phas was probably one of the first 
men in Jerusalem to reach this con- 
clusion. He was not a good man, 
but he was a resolute character. 
When he became convinced that 
Jesus must be regarded as a foe he 
prepared to crush him. 

We do not know in how many 
ways the hostility of Caiaphas may 
have made the life and work of Jesus 
difficult, but it came to open and 
vigorous expression in the excite- 
ment which filled Jerusalem after 
the raising of Lazarus. The priestly 
party met, full of anxiety over the 
enormous enthusiasm Jesus was rous- 
ing. With fear they spoke of the 
possible outcome. There was some 
feeling, it seems, that Jesus might be 
too much for them. They dreaded 
it, but they did not know what to 

65 



THE MEN OF 

do. Then Caiaphas spoke. He was 
easily the leader of the group by 
strength of character as well as by 
position. There was really only one 
thing to do about the Galilaean 
prophet. He must be killed. Then 
all danger from him would be over. 
Bluntly as Caiaphas said this, he 
put it astutely, too. For the good 
of the people, he said, Jesus must 
be put to death. He was strong 
enough to carry his point. The 
leaders of the Jews united with him 
to plot for the death of Jesus. 

When we see Caiaphas again the 
plot is in process of being carried out. 
Jesus has been arrested and is being 
tried before the high priest. Wit- 
nesses have been secured and their 
evidence is being given. But, some- 
how, the trial does not move accord- 
ing to the desire of the foes of the 
Great Teacher. It is quite evident 
66 



THE GOSPELS 

that a mass of petty accusation is 
being brought against him. To save 
the trial from absurdity and to make 
it a serious menace to Jesus, some- 
thing must be done. The Master 
stands in quiet scorn, as obviously 
trifling charges are brought against 
him. Once again it is Caiaphas who 
has strength of character enough to 
keep the plot alive. He has been 
studying Jesus. He has insight 
enough to feel that a great challenge 
as to his person and work may rouse 
the Galilaean. He rises in all the dig- 
nity of his office. He parries a 
moment with side questions. Jesus 
makes no reply. Then he looks 
Jesus full in the eye. "I adjure thee 
by the living God," he says, sol- 
emnly, "that thou tell us whether 
thou be the Christ, the Son of God." 
There is a tense silence. Jesus feels 
that an hour has come when to re- 

6 7 



THE MEN OF 

fuse to speak would be treason and 
cowardice. He knows that to speak 
will seal his doom, but he speaks. 
He declares that the high priest has 
correctly spoken. He is all that 
Caiaphas has said, and the heavens 
themselves shall see him on the right 
hand of power. 

With ill concealed relief and grati- 
fication at the words he has drawn 
from Jesus, Caiaphas turns to those 
with him. He rends his garments in 
mock horror at what he interprets as 
blasphemy. "What think ye?" he 
asks the rest. They quickly act up 
to the part Caiaphas has suggested, 
and cry out together, "He is worthy 
of death." Then they treat Jesus 
with ignominy and scorn, and pre- 
pare to lead him away to Pilate to 
have their sentence confirmed by the 
Roman power. 

So the plot of Caiaphas succeeds, 
68 



THE GOSPELS 

and Jesus comes to his death. We 
hear no more words of Caiaphas, 
though he does for a moment appear 
in connection with the persecution 
of the church at a later time. He 
lives to see the power he believed he 
had destroyed go moving forth on a 
career of victory impossible to in- 
terrupt. 

No one can accuse Caiaphas of 
weakness. He was a strong and 
alert man of inflexible purpose, able 
to command men. and secure results. 
If he had fought on the right side, 
what a warrior he would have made ! 
If his dominant personality had been 
surrendered to Jesus, what a Chris- 
tian leader he would have become! 
As it is, he stands forth typical of 
what strength and selfishness will 
make of a man. He failed to under- 
stand the meaning of events. He 
failed to understand the real signifi- 

6 9 



THE MEN OF 

cance of Jesus. He beat his strength 
in vain against the walls of God's 
purpose. Pride and selfishness and 
a secular mind had blinded his eyes 
and hardened his heart. When he 
died the new religion was girding 
itself to conquer the world. 



70 



THE GOSPELS 

IX 
PILATE 

Roman law, with all its proud 
sanctions, did not save Jesus from 
death. The gross injustice which 
issued in the crucifixion had the 
official approval of the Roman gov- 
ernor. This stern representative of 
the nation which was the lawgiver 
of the world deliberately sacrificed 
an innocent man rather than take 
the risk of being accused of disloyalty 
to the emperor at Rome. Pilate did 
not surrender Jesus without a strug- 
gle, but he did surrender him; and 
so it came to pass that the most 
famous Roman decision was one in 
which justice was intentionally 
spurned. However we may use 
the fact in current discussion, it 
was the fear of recall which caused 
7i 



THE MEN OF 

this judge to prove false to his 
trust. 

We can almost watch the processes 
of the mind of Pilate in this great 
trial, so full an account have we, 
when all that the gospel records tell 
is held together in our minds. We 
know from other sources that Pilate 
was a man of hot and imperious 
temper, very unpopular with the 
Jews. He hated diplomacy, though 
he found it necessary to use it as a 
means to keep his place in the sys- 
tem of Roman rule, where he had 
made a place for himself. An occa- 
sional sudden and sharp reaction, 
issuing in some startling deed, proved 
how scornfully proud the man was at 
heart. He despised the Jews and 
yet he feared them. 

To this man, then, Jesus was 
brought by the leaders of the Jews, 
accompanied by a mob ready to cry 
72 



THE GOSPELS 

out whatever was suggested to them. 
The Galilean prophet was already 
condemned so far as Jewish au- 
thority was concerned, but the sen- 
tence must be confirmed by the 
representative of the Roman power. 
Pilate looked at Jesus curiously. 
This man with a form built into 
sturdy strength by work and out- 
door life, with a face drawn with 
suffering, yet full of noble serious- 
ness, was no criminal. One long 
look of careful scrutiny told Pilate 
that. Alone they had a few words of 
conversation. Very simply Jesus ex- 
plained to the governor that he had 
no revolutionary designs. He was 
not a captain of armies. He was a 
captain of ideas. His kingdom was 
not built on fighting men. It was 
built on the truth. Pilate now felt 
that he understood the prisoner. He 
was in the presence of a harmless 

73 



THE MEN OF 

philosophical visionary. The Roman, 
engrossed with deeds rather than 
thoughts, queried lightly, "What is 
truth ?" and passed out into the 
presence of Jesus' foes. 

Here he found a malignant hos- 
tility which surprised him. His at- 
tempts to save Jesus clearly roused a 
deep, sullen anger, which soon burst 
forth in violent speech. Pilate tried 
to evade the issue. He sent Jesus to 
Herod. The prisoner was returned 
with no decision made. Pilate tried 
to secure the release of Jesus through 
a passover custom of setting a pris- 
oner free. But the people called for 
the release of a blood-stained politi- 
cal revolutionist and still angrily 
cried for the death of the Galilasan. 
The dream of Pilate's wife roused a 
vein of superstition in the grave and 
stern Roman; the accusation that 
Jesus claimed to be the Son of God 

74 



THE GOSPELS 

stirred a strange fear in his heart, 
and something intangible in the pa- 
tient, lofty bearing of Jesus con- 
firmed a dimly formed belief that 
strange and inscrutable things were 
involved in this person and this 
trial. He was very eager to be 
safely out of it all, with the prisoner 
released. 

He tried to appeal to the pity of 
the people, but the sight of the 
agonized face beneath the crown of 
thorns did not move them. The cry 
that Pilate was a traitor if he did not 
condemn this man began to run 
through the crowd. This touched 
the most vulnerable place in his 
character. The governor felt that 
he could allow no such charge as 
this to go to Rome. To save him- 
self he must condemn the prisoner. 

Pilate made a show of placing re- 
sponsibility on the people to whom 

75 



THE MEN OF 

he surrendered, but washing his hands 
could not change the fact that with- 
out his consent Jesus could not have 
been crucified. With malicious de- 
light in treating the Jews with scorn, 
he placed an inscription above the 
cross, which was meant simply to 
humiliate them. He was disturbed 
and overwrought and angry and rest- 
less, but all this did not lead him to 
do the one thing which would have 
saved his manhood and his honor 
as a judge. The hour of testing had 
found him a weakling and a coward. 

Pilate had good intentions, but he 
did not have strength of personal 
character. He is the classic illustra- 
tion of the weakness which may lie 
hidden under dignity and the arro- 
gant assertion of power. 

The legends which gather about 
Pilate hesitate between seeing him 
in the light of his desire to save 
76 



THE GOSPELS 

Jesus and his actual condemnation 
of him. One or two facts we know. 
After a time he was sent to Rome 
under charges, and the emperor died 
before his trial. Then he disappears 
from authentic history. 

The Pilate the world remembers is 
the man who refused to take per- 
sonal risk to be faithful to the de- 
mands of justice, the man who 
allowed the forms of law to be used 
for the legal murder of an innocent 
man, the representative of Roman 
restraint and fairness who was false 
to all that was intrusted to him, at 
the critical hour of his life. If the 
crying mob causes us to feel that 
there are times when the masses 
cannot be trusted, the vacillation of 
Pilate does not lead us to put our 
trust in the classes. The truth is 
that only moral purpose and strength 
of character can save either the 
77 



THE MEN OF 

masses or the classes, the people or 
their judges, from failure in the 
testing hours of life. Roman law- 
gave a high standard of conduct. It 
could not give sufficient motive to 
secure its enforcement. 

In a way the failure of Pilate 
represents the failure of the system 
he represented. Law by itself does 
not produce character, and Jesus, 
standing in the presence of Pilate, 
was more than a symbol of that 
which was to make character where 
law had failed. 



78 



THE GOSPELS 

X 

HEROD ANTIPAS 

Herod may be called one of the 
men of the Gospels. He can in no 
sense be called a man of the gospel. 
Herod Antipas was for over forty 
years the ruler of Perasa and Galilee. 
The two characteristics of his which 
come most quickly to mind are pas- 
sion and craft. He was a man of 
unscrupulous passion and conscience- 
less craft. When he desired a thing 
he wanted it with all the heat of a 
tempestuous and unchecked emo- 
tional nature. After his marriage he 
visited his brother in Rome. His 
brother's wife, Herodias, strangely 
fascinated him. The infatuation 
deepened, and he resolved to have 
his brother's wife at any cost. His 
own wife learned of Herod's plans 

79 



THE MEN OF 

and escaped to her father, King 
Aretas. Then Herod worked out the 
fulfillment of his desires. Herodias, 
already the mother of Salome by her 
previous marriage, was made his wife. 

With all his unbridled nature, 
Herod seems to have made a vig- 
orous and, in some senses, an effi- 
cient ruler over his restless people. 
His alert and practical mind, with 
its gift for strategy, doubtless served 
him here. 

The preaching of John the Bap- 
tist may be said to represent a crisis 
in the life of Herod Antipas. John 
fearlessly condemned the marriage of 
Herod to Herodias and brought this 
haughty ruler face to face with the 
real moral quality of his sin. Herod 
was angered, but this was not all. 
He was deeply stirred. His con- 
science began to speak insistently. 
He could not help respecting the 
80 



THE GOSPELS 

fearless prophet, and some dawning 
sense of moral values caused him to 
enjoy John's preaching when the fire 
of his personal displeasure at the 
prophet was not burning too brightly. 
His anger at John and the influence 
of Herodias caused the arrest of the 
desert prophet. His respect for the 
stern messenger of conscience and a 
certain appreciation of his message 
caused him to protect his prisoner 
and to listen to him often. 

This state of affairs was bound to 
come to an end, however. Through 
the ingenious strategy of Herodias 
playing on the roused emotions of 
Herod, when he was partly intoxi- 
cated, the death of John was secured. 
The daughter of the former husband 
of Herodias was the means by which 
the hatred of the woman John had 
condemned found a way to its 
victim. 

81 



THE MEN OF 

After John's death Herod's con- 
science became a ghastly thing, 
haunting his sleepless hours. When 
he heard of the mighty works of Jesus 
a superstitious tremor seized him 
and he feared that John had risen 
from the dead. Herod had believed 
in John. He had been deeply 
touched by his sincere, stern min- 
istry. The murder of John seemed 
the death of the best that was in 
Herod. Only haunting superstitious 
fears were left where a robust con- 
science had begun to make itself 
heard. 

When Jesus was brought before 
Herod he did not seem to feel that 
there was anything to say to him. 
This is in marked contrast to his 
treatment of Pilate. A moral fight 
was on in Pilate and Jesus recog- 
nized it. Herod's moral fight was 
over and righteousness was defeated. 
82 



THE GOSPELS 

The man was still alive, but his 
manhood seems to have been dead. 
Jesus made no attempts to rouse 
him. He refused to reply to his 
questions. The only explanation of 
this is that he felt there was no power 
of response in Herod's mind and 
heart. The worst that can be said 
of Herod is that Jesus felt that he 
had nothing to say to him. 

Overreaching ambition finally 
brought about Herod's banishment. 
His wife, who had at least the virtue 
of a proud loyalty, accompanied 
him into exile. The life of the crafty 
voluptuary then passes into obliv- 
ion. He had lived in regal luxury. 
He had tasted of many a pleasure, 
thinking only of his enjoyment and 
not of its moral cost. He had skill- 
fully used the powers of a shrewd 
mind in ruling a difficult people. 
He had heard one great moral voice. 
83 



THE MEN OF 

It had stung him. It had revealed 
to him deep meanings and lofty 
sanctions which he had never seri- 
ously considered before. The day 
of Herod's opportunity was the day 
of John's relentless preaching. But 
turbulent desire, the heat of a nature 
uncontrolled, and the pride of a self- 
ish will were stronger than the 
summons which sounded so clearly 
in the chambers of Herod's soul. 
The higher demand was silenced. 
The worst overthrew the best. Con- 
science, which had been a kingly 
summons, became a shattering fear. 
Though he lived on, in sober truth 
the king was dead. He made the 
motions of life, but the fires of 
goodness had expired in his heart. 
The tragedy of Herod is the suicide 
of a soul. 



8 4 



THE GOSPELS 



XI 

THE MAN WHO SAW JESUS 
DIE 

Many people saw Jesus live. They 
listened to his speech and looked 
upon his deeds. A large number of 
them felt the moral grandeur and 
human winsomeness of his life. Some 
of them felt that they lived in a new 
world as they learned to look out 
upon life through his eyes. Some 
looked and listened unmoved and 
without any real understanding of 
what was going on around them. 

Many people saw Jesus die. Some 
watched scornfully what they con- 
sidered the spectacle of a public 
execution. Some were filled with 
alarm and wonder and a strange, 
uncanny sense of nearness to awful 
issues which they did not really 

85 



THE MEN OF 

comprehend. Some stood by with 
drawn faces and broken hearts, be- 
cause the very brightness and hope 
of life was passing from them. The 
centurion by the cross watched the 
whole scene with a dawning moral 
apprehension which made that day 
a great and outstanding day in his 
life's experience. 

The centurion was a brave and 
vigorous Roman soldier. He was 
accustomed to hard experiences and 
hard scenes. Strength rather than 
beauty was found in the sanctuary 
of his life. A strong-muscled, in- 
flexible man, ready for hard fights 
and long campaigns, he typified in 
his own body and his own person- 
ality the stern strength of Rome. 

The centurion knew little of Jesus 

before the day of the cross. Indeed, 

he may never have heard of the man 

of Galilee until he was called upon 

86 



THE GOSPELS 

to assist in the execution of the 
three condemned criminals. He 
probably went to his task as one of 
those duties which come in the 
course of the day, feeling little in- 
terest in the men who were to pass 
out of life so soon, and no curiosity 
about them. 

It soon became evident to the 
centurion, however, that this was 
no ordinary execution. The man on 
the central cross was different from 
any condemned man he had ever 
seen. There was something in the 
awful quiet of that one face which 
fastened the eyes of the centurion 
upon it. From that moment he was 
engrossed in watching how this man 
died. 

In the crowd about the cross the 
Roman soldier detected various feel- 
ings about the central figure in the 
day's tragedy. The leaders of the 
87 



THE MEN OF 

Jews moved with singular exultation 
among the crowd. They seemed to 
be enjoying what was going on. Oc- 
casionally they uttered biting words 
to incite the crowd to rail against the 
man on the central cross. There 
were many who seemed the willing 
creatures of the leaders of the Jews. 
They filled the air with scorn of the 
Galilean. 

There were also many whose faces 
were drawn with sympathy and pain. 
They seemed mystified and confused, 
as if something entirely unforeseen, 
something for which they were com- 
pletely unprepared, was occurring. 

One little circle seemed to gather 
to itself the agony of the hour. The 
face of one woman, white with un- 
utterable pain, fastened itself on the 
centurion's mind. 

But meantime various things were 
occurring. Once and again the figure 
88 



THE GOSPELS 

on the cross spoke. There were 
words of prayer for those who put 
him to death, as if even in this hour 
there was no hatred in his heart. 
The centurion heard these words 
w T ith strange stirrings of his own 
heartstrings. There was an awful 
cry of deep anguish, as if the weight 
of the world's wrong lay upon the 
man on the cross, and the world's 
evil had settled in darkness about 
him and he was left utterly alone 
with its blackness. There was a 
tender word to the woman of the 
anguished face. Like a flash it 
came to the centurion that she was 
the mother of the Man on the cross. 
Darkness had come over the land, 
and in the unearthly night in the 
daytime all faces stood out in an un- 
natural fashion which fairly struck 
terror to his heart. 

During the moments that passed 
89 



THE MEN OF 

into hours the centurion had much 
time for thought. Looking up at 
the face of the great sufferer, it 
seemed as if all that was deepest 
and best in his own life was drawn 
to the surface of his mind. This 
Man's death seemed a challenge to 
the centurion's own manhood, and 
as he looked upon the Man on the 
cross his feeling was not so much 
pity as suffering awe. He had never 
felt so in the presence of death 
before. 

At last there was a dim sense of a 
change in things. The face on the 
cross seemed transfigured with an 
ineffable peace. A deep word of 
satisfaction passed his lips. "It is 
finished," he said, as if his agony had 
been a great achievement. Then, as 
his face lost all trace of pain and was 
full of heavenly quiet, he breathed 
forth, "Father, into thy hands I 
90 



THE GOSPELS 

commend my spirit," and after that, 
with a cry which was a triumphant 
shout, he met the moment of death. 
The centurion stood still looking 
up at that silent form. Then the 
feelings within him welled into 
speech. "Truly," he said, "this was 
a righteous man." He was silent a 
moment. Then away from the 
depths of his life, and the place of 
daring venture in his soul, the whole 
impression of that day rose up and 
put itself in words. "Truly," he 
said, "this man was the Son of God." 
This was the noteworthy fact about 
the centurion. He recognized the 
Prince upon the cross. We dare 
believe that that day and its mem- 
ories became the defining and de- 
ciding things in his after life. 



9i 



THE MEN OF 



XII 

THE MAN OF THE GOSPELS 

We have discussed eleven of the 
men of the Gospels. Now we are to 
think of the Man of the Gospels. 
Jesus is not simply the most human 
figure in the gospel gallery; he is the 
only completely and perfectly human 
figure. The others represent hu- 
manity marred by sad flaws. He 
represents humanity with no speck 
or flaw or any such thing. 

We shall never appreciate the sig- 
nificance of Jesus until we have 
come to see that he was more than a 
man— the deity of Jesus is the 
corner stone of the church; but it 
is also true that we shall never un- 
derstand Jesus if we think of him 
as less than a man. To feel the 
perfection of his humanity is the 
92 



THE GOSPELS 

first step toward apprehending his 
deity. 

Bulwer Lytton tells somewhere the 
story of a man who felt all the while 
as if he were a spectator of the 
human drama. He was not a part 
of it. He was an onlooker. Jesus 
gives us no such impression as we 
read in the Gospels the record of 
his life. He did not stand on the 
bank looking at the stream flowing 
past him. He was a part of the 
stream. He entered into human life. 
Its experiences, its hopes and fears, 
its joys and sorrows, and its testing 
conflicts were his own. He was a 
real man and he lived a real man's 
life. 

An illustration of this is found in 
the fact that people always felt near 
to Jesus. They did not find it hard 
to approach him. They found it 
hard not to approach him. In- 
93 



THE MEN OF 

stinctively they felt that he would 
understand them. It was not sim- 
ply that human life was an open 
book in his hand. It was an open 
book in his heart. There was noth- 
ing in human experience foreign to 
his understanding and sympathy. 

If we would come to the defining 
thing about his life as a man, we 
must say that it was the way in 
which seeming opposites met and 
were harmonized in his character. 
He was a man of perfect poise. He 
was always a master of the hour 
and he was always a master of men. 
A certain kingly steadiness marked 
his life. But all the while he was a 
man of passion. His poise was not 
the cold complacency of an un- 
kindled life. Many a fire was burn- 
ing in his heart, but he was like the 
burning bush which Moses saw, al- 
ways burning but never consumed. 

94 



THE GOSPELS 

There was always heat, but never 
conflagration. The passionate in- 
tensity of his life was steadied into 
the most perfect poise e 

The voice of conscience was domi- 
nant in his words and in his life. 
Righteousness was as regal in his 
teachings as in any sharp summons 
of the Old Testament prophets. At 
the same time the voice of a loving 
heart spoke in all his speech and 
made itself heard in all his deeds. A 
great tenderness suffused his life. In 
a strange, wonderful way sinful men 
in his presence felt that in him 
"Righteousness and peace had kissed 
each other." The conscience had 
made friends with the heart, and the 
heart felt the mastery of the moral 
law. 

Sanctity and a noble secularity 
met together in the life of Jesus. 
Never was there a life which showed 

95 



THE MEN OF 

such intimate fellowship with the tin- 
seen. Never was there a life in 
which prayer was such a deep and 
beautiful communion. Never was 
there a life so constantly conscious 
of the presence of the heavenly 
Father. And at the same time there 
was such hearty and zestful human 
contact that the critics seized upon 
it for condemnation. "This man," 
they said, "is a winebibber and a 
friend of publicans and sinners." In 
him sainthood smacked of the soil 
and the secular was made one with 
the sacred. 

All this bringing into unity of 
contradictory characteristics was no 
light and easy achievement. It was 
wrought out in struggle, with the 
stress and strain of many a hard 
conflict. The garment of a perfect 
life was not given to Jesus ready 
made. He cut it from the materials 
96 



THE GOSPELS 

of his own experiences, and fitted it 
to his own manhood with unerring 
skill. The keeping of his motives 
perfect and the expressing of them 
in perfect deeds is the very point at 
which his human life becomes di- 
vine. "He was tempted in all points 
like as we are, yet without sin." 

It was not simply as the Man of 
the Gospels, however, that Jesus 
gave the world a gospel. Nor when 
we have seen that the Man of the 
Gospels grows beyond human stat- 
ure and reaches the height of the 
Son of God, have we come to a full 
understanding of the message which 
is transforming the world. The in- 
carnation was necessary to salvation, 
but the incarnation was not the 
achievement of salvation. 

It is as we stand before the green 
hill far away, and with faces hidden 
in the presence of Calvary's tragedy, 

97 



THE MEN OF THE GOSPELS 

that we reach the heart of the whole 
matter. We have a glorious heritage 
in the Son of man, we have a 
mighty ministry in the life of the 
Son of God, but the transforming 
of the life of men comes from the 
decisive deed upon the cross. It is 
in the presence of the cross that we 
really see the meaning of the lives 
of all the men of the Gospels. It 
was upon the cross that the Man of 
the Gospels, who is God incarnate, 
did his great work for men. It is 
through the creative power of Cal- 
vary that we in our day in some 
genuine sense may be made into 
men of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 



98 



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